The Cleveland Cavaliers: The Cavs were the first team to beat the Celtics this season. And, frankly, it probably had more to do with Boston overlooking a lesser opponent than anything Cleveland did. Still, Byron Scott had his battle plan ready:

The Cavs plan to try and exploit [Shaq] in tonight's game at Quicken Loans Arena.

"One of our reasons we were successful the first time: We got up and down the floor and put Shaq in a lot of pick-and-rolls," Cavs coach Byron Scott said. "That won't change.

"If we do that, our guards will get wide-open shots. (We'll try to spread the floor) as much as possible and move it from one side to the other."

That strategy worked so well that Cleveland's starting guards -- Mo Williams and Anthony Parker -- went 8-for-23 from the field. The Cavaliers shot 39 percent as a team, got outscored 60-26 in the paint, fell behind by 20 and eventually lost 106-87. By the way, those 26 points in the paint were two points away from Cleveland's season-low.

Time for a new battle plan, Byron.

Anyway, whoever wrote the AP recap had a blast with this one. Check out these gems:

"It will be really hostile," said Cavs forward J.J. Hickson, who was held to one point by the Celtics. "It's no secret. He [James] is coming back to where he originally started. It's going to be a great environment. I'd be lying if I said it's a normal game."

And:

When he was replaced with 4:04 left by Von Wafer, Rondo was applauded by everyone on Boston's bench and got a loving slap on the backside as he walked past Rivers.

And even though this line was removed -- probably by some eagle-eyed editor -- Basketbawful reader allison got a screen shot:

Celtics G Delonte West had successful surgery to repair his broken right wrist. Has a team ever reported an unsuccessful surgery?

In related news: No, I did not get a job with the Associated Press.

Byron Scott, quote machine: Regarding Boston's dominance around the basket: "It was like a layup drill."

The Portland Frail Blazers: When the Frail Blazers were beaten by the New Orleans Hornets last Friday, it was their fifth loss in eight games. But the Portland faithful told the naysayers to back up a step and look at the competition in those five losses: The Lakers, Thunder, Hornets, Jazz and Hornets again.

Well, the Blazers have now lost four in a row and seven of their last 10 games. They've fallen to 8-9. And their last two losses have been to the New Jersey Nyets (6-12) and, last night, the Philadelphia 76ers (5-13).

Portland managed only 79 points on 37 percent shooting. During the fourth quarter, they went 4-for-20 and got outscored 22-11. And Brandon Roy played more like the Ghost of Tracy McGrady, finishing with 10 points on 3-for-9 shooting. Roy scored only 2 points in the final 24 minutes.

No word when Greg Oden will be back. Roy's knees will probably never get better.

Poor, poor Portland...the former Team of the Future. Now, when you hold up a Frail Blazers media guide to your ear, all you hear are creaking joints, snapping tendons and the sound of a thousand sad trombones.

Nate McMillan, coach of the year candidate: "You've got to take care of the ball, you've got to defend the ball and you've got to score in this league."

Doug Collins, quote machine: On Andre Iguodala's contributions: "He was our ace of spades tonight even though he did not score that many points."

Ace of spades?

The Detroit Pistons: Since their 90-79 road loss to the Magic wasn't that surprising, I'll let Tayshaun Prince write the epitaph to this loss...which dropped Detroit to 6-10 overall and 2-8 on the road: "We've had some success against them. They always know that when we play them we're ready to play, but in the fourth quarter, they were really ready for us this time."

Charlie Villanueva, delusion machine: "This is a game we could have closed out."

Mickael Pietrus, quote machine: "J.J. [Redick] and I are like brothers, even though I stay under the sun a little more than he does."

"I still wouldn't understand because he went through like four years," McGrady said, shaking his head. "I couldn't imagine."

McGrady's Games Played2007-08: 662008-09: 352009-10: 302010-11: ??

The New Jersey Nyets: The game was tied at 65. Devin Harris got hurt. The Knicks ripped off a 14-2 run. Game over.

Screamed New Jersey coach Avery Johnson: "OH MAN, A BIG GAME CHANGER. DEVIN IS A GUY THAT WE RELY ON HEAVILY. IN THE SENSE IT'S KIND OF LIKE IF THEY LOSE STOUDEMIRE. ON A LOT OF NIGHTS DEVIN'S BEEN ONE OF OUR TOP TWO PLAYERS. IT WAS TOUGH TO OVERCOME IT."

So tough, in fact, that the Nyets didn't overcome it.

The game did provide a fun (if defenseless) battle between Brook Lopez (season-high 36 points on 14-for-24 shooting) and Amar''''''e Stoudemire (35 points on 13-for-22 from the field).

Both will play in New York once the Nets move to Brooklyn in 2012, but for now their rivalry mostly exists off the court. The Nets put a billboard featuring owner Mikhail Prokhorov and part-owner Jay-Z near Madison Square Garden, and the Knicks responded by putting Stoudemire on an ad near the site of the Barclays Center will stand in Brooklyn.

An ad ran during MSG Network's telecast of the Knicks' victory at Detroit on Sunday advertising this game by telling the Nets, "You can walk like us, you can talk like us, but you ain't never gonna be like us."

The Nets fired back in an e-mailed statement from Prokhorov on Tuesday that read: "I don't think we want to be like the Knicks. I think we'd more like to resemble the Lakers."

OH. SNAP.

But both D'Antoni and Johnson dismissed the idea of a rivalry until it involves postseason meetings between the teams.

"You don't really get a rivalry unless you're in the playoffs," D'Antoni said. "It doesn't work during the regular season when you're [saying], 'Oh boy, we knocked them out of ninth place."

D'Antoni's got the right idea. The Knicks haven't had a winning season in a decade. Then again, the Nyets won only 12 games last season...so in comparison New York's standard 30-35 wins would probably feel like when you wash your sheets and then go outside and hang them out, and the sun dries them.

By the way, before everybody gets all excited about New Yorks 10-9 record, I will remind you that 1) this team had a six-game losing streak earlier this season and 2) check out the murderer's row of teams they've beaten during their recent "hot" streak: Kings (4-12), Warriors (8-10), Clippers (3-15), Bobcraps (6-11), Bobcraps (again) Pistons (6-12) and Nyets (6-12). Hey, kudos to them for taking advantage of a soft stretch in the schedule. But the schedule has a way of catching up to teams...

Slumped over in his chair, staring aimlessly at the locker room floor Tuesday night, Danny Granger of the Indiana Pacers had little energy thanks to a nagging case of the flu.

Forget that it sounds like the first line of a high school angst poem...Granger was apparently pretty sick. But not too sick to drop a season-high 37 points on 12-for-19 from the field and 10-for-11 from the line.

That's what it's like these days in Sacramento: Feeling bad? The Purple Paupers will make you feel better. Meanwhile, the Kings have dropped five straight and 10 of their last 11.

Said DeMarcus Cousins: "I'm mad and I'm frustrated about losing. My own opinion is I think different strategies should be used in the game. But I was playing selfish and it [the practice incident] was a good lesson for me. I learned from that."

What practice incident you ask...?

DeMarcus Cousins: Apparently, Cousins is trying to steal the "Big Baby" nickname from Glen Davis. But for all the wrong reasons.

Recently, Cousins got yanked from the starting lineup and fined because of an argument with the team's strength and conditioning coach. Then on Monday, he got booted out of practice by coach Paul Westphal. Reason: Unknown.

Said Westphal: "It was a necessary move in our continued attempt to help him develop. I'm not going to get into details. He was asked to leave early."

Paul Westphal, coach of the year candidate: "DeMarcus isn't the first player who has been dismissed from practice and he won't be the last."

Consider yourselves warned, Kings players.

The Gol_en State Warriors: Seven Spurs players scored between 12 and 27 points. Tim Duncan (18 rebounds, 15 points, 11 assists) had his third career regular season triple double, and his first RSTD since March 14, 2003. San Antonio had 31 assists on 42 made field goals, scored 30 fast break points, converted 16 forced turnovers into 20 more points, and committed only 11 turnovers themselves despite playing a fast-paced game in which they attempted 91 field goals and 31 free throw attempts.

And just like that, the Warriors have lost eight of their last 10 games.

Said David Lee: "When you don't play your best ball against an experienced team like San Antonio, there's a reason their record is the way it is. They don't necessarily do it with all athleticism and power and length. They do it with smarts and they take advantage of any mistake that you make."

And in the Warriors' case, there are lots of mistakes...

The Los Angeles Lakers: According to the AP recap, the defending chumps had "Get back on track" written on the board in their locker room. And that's exactly what they did...if you consider being punked by the Grizzlies -- L.A.'s third loss in a row -- getting back on track. I guess it was like one of those train tracks you find in the movies, you know, the ones that run right to the edge of a steep cliff for no discernable reason.

The Lakers killed it on the boards, outrebounding the Care Bears 42-29 overall and 13-5 on the offensive glass. They were also +9 in made free throws. But L.A.'s shooting -- "led" by Kobe's 9-for-25 night -- was pretty bawful: 43 percent from the field and 31 percent from downtown.

The Los Angeles Lakers might have to learn that a little less Kobe Bryant may go a long way this season.

On Tuesday, Bryant scored 29 points but it took him 25 shots to get there in a 98-96 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. During the Lakers current three-game losing streak, Bryant has attempted at least 20 shots in each game and has averaged 26.3 FGA per game.

This season, the Lakers are 2-3 when Bryant attempts at least 25 shots in a game, compared to 11-2 when he attempts fewer than 25 shots.

Look even deeper and you will see that all five of the Lakers losses have come when Bryant has at least 20 shots. When Bryant attempts fewer than 20 shots, the Lakers are 7-0.

Regarding Kobe's shot-jackery, Phil Jackson said: "I think he felt like he had to carry a little bit of the load. Kobe's going to come out there and attack if no one else is aggressive enough. He's going to test the defense, and the other guys are going to have to step in."

In related news, Mamba is 41-for-97 (42 percent) over his last four games. In fact, he's shooting 42.8 percent on the season. It's the lowest mark since his rookie campaign...when he shot 41.7 percent. What's more, his Effective Field Goal Percentage (46.4) is a career low.

Of course, the real story of this game might be the one shot Kobe didn't take. Specifically, the final shot of the night. Down 98-96 with time running out, the Lakers got lucky when Mike Conley lost the ball in a collision with Pau Gasol. L.A. recovered, but Jackson didn't call time. Kobe brought the ball up, and...

Said Kobe: "I went middle and I had the shot that I wanted, but I lost the handle on the ball while I was going up, so I kicked it to Ron. Ron took a dribble and shot."

Make that: pump fake of nobody, dribble and a shot. When Artest received the ball, he was wide open. Coulda just been a shot. But it wasn't. And that gave Rudy Gay the opportunity to stuff Ron-Ron. Game over.

Said Artest: "It was well-executed. I learned something from that today. That was great execution. His close out was perfect. ... He closed out, chopped his feet a little bit. Stayed low, didn't go totally for the head fake and recovered."

Ironically, this happened one day after the following article was published at SLAM ONLINE:

Trouble began to brew late Friday night in Utah, as Ron Artest dribbled around aimlessly in the fourth quarter before hoisting up an awful shot. Artest again made a few questionable decisions on the offensive end last night, as the Lakers lost in dramatic fashion to the Indiana Pacers at home.

Phil Jackson was unimpressed to say the least, and for the second consecutive game, he pulled Ron-Ron aside to discuss matters. Jackson wouldn’t divulge details of the chat, but Artest was more than happy to share.

Fox Sports has the quotes:

"He told me I should have called timeout when we got the offensive rebound," Artest said. "Kobe wanted the ball. Kobe was going to hit a three. When I saw Kobe, I was going to give it to him. I asked (Jackson), could everybody else on the court call timeout since I had the ball? And he said yes." Artest paused and then smiled. "He forgot to address it with everybody," he said. "But that's OK."

Jackson declined to detail what he said to Artest, preferring to keep it private. Artest said he was comfortable with his role, but noted that his feelings were irrelevant. "I listen and I take in the good, what can help me. But then I've also got to be like I made it this far for a reason," said Artest, whose 3-pointer brought the Lakers within 89-86 and got the crowd on its feet. "How do I not be selfish but at the same time listen? I'm sure he didn't want me to take that last three tonight. It’s all about playing and trying to figure out a way. We’ll be OK."

Last season, Jackson routinely criticized Artest’s decision-making in the triangle offense, and during some heated moments during the Playoffs, he flat-out instructed his team not to pass him the ball.

It's very early in the season, but worth noting that Ron Artest is averaging career lows in both points and minutes.

Anybody hear that? Sounds like somebody just opened a bottle of Crazy Pills.

Celtics-Cavs: Von Wafer has firmly established himself as Boston's best human victory cigar since Brian Scalabrine, tonight bricking once from Euclid Avenue and adding on a foul for a +2 suck differential in 4:04!

For Cleveland, Jawad Williams also earned a +2 via brick and foul, but in 2:46.

Nets-Knicks: Stephen Graham cracked open a care package from Mr. Prokhorov and found 2.95 (2:56) trillion in unwrapped ruble notes!

The Dolan Family's finest provided one turnover for Shawne Williams in 1:37, giving him a +1. Timofey Mozgov made one shot in 8:53 along with a rebound, but also fouled four times and lost the rock once for a 5:3 Voskuhl.

Lakers-Grizzlies: Hasheem The 2nd Overall Dream Thabeet pulled two boards in Memphis's victory over Team Mamba...but in his 9:36, he fouled an Oden-like four times for a 4:2 Voskuhl. Tony Allen added three bricks and a foul in 4:29 for a +4.

Spurs-Warriors: Dan Gadzuric was game enough to go 100% (on one shot) in 6:34, but three fouls and a turnover led to a 4:2 Voskuhl. Jeremy Lin, the man who has been tasked with saving the Warriors franchise all season long, tossed three bricks (twice from the charity stripe), lost the rock once, AND took a rejection for a +5 in 3:34!!!!

considering, what has been going on in the lakers camp the last few days, i think kobe was conspiring with phil to put more spotlight on artest. mamba would take that last second shot 10 out of 10 times. but he saw artest was there, so he threw it to him, knowing well that ron-ron would eventually brick the shot. it turned out worse.

How about Manu Ginobili having the best season of his career right now. 27pts on 13 shots last night, along with 5(!) steals. He's shooting 48% from the field and 40% from 3, not to mention a career-best 90% from the line. He better be an all-star this year.

Also, looking at the guy's career stats, its incredible he never averaged more than 30min/game except for 2007 (31mpg). When you consider he averaged 28min/game over his career, it makes you wonder what he could have done, at least statistically, if he had been a starter and a 35min+/game guy.

Surely its no coincidence that he is having a career-high in ppg (21.9ppg) this year and he's averaging more minutes than ever before (33mpg).

I suppose the upside of playing off the bench and fewer minutes is that it might extend his career overall by a season or two. He's 33 right now. How long can he stay healthy and keep playing like this?

One final thought, and an answer to the above question, is that when you look at guards/wings who play at and beyond the age of 35 at a very high level, (e.g. Jordan, Pippen, Nash) it becomes very obvious that conditioning and a healthy lifestyle is the key to NBA longevity. Pippen and Jordan were complete gym-rats (Pippen until he retired and Jordan until he joined the Wiz and started eating Krispy Kremes), and Nash pretty much spends every waking moment doing core exercises and strength/conditioning to help offset his back issues.

Looking at Ginobili this year, he looks more conditioned physically than he has in years' past. He's cut up and toned. When a guy looks like that, it means he's doing something serious to get there, especially at the age of 33 where you really have to earn everything. When you are in that good of shape, your body is far more resistant to injury. So while we all know Manu is a twisted ankle waiting to happen, based on how he looks right now, I think he could actually make it through the whole season injury-free. And THAT makes the Spurs pretty scary; especially if they end up with the #1 seed and home court throughout the playoffs.

AK Dave, I noticed the same thing about Ginobili. Guy is playing out of his mind right now. Scoring better than ever, reminds me of 07-08 when he was anointed the 2nd best SG in the league (Wade, Roy were hurt I think). He surely will make the All-Star team

"Look even deeper and you will see that all five of the Lakers losses have come when Bryant has at least 20 shots. When Bryant attempts fewer than 20 shots, the Lakers are 7-0."

I don't watch a lot of Laker games, but you've got a correlation/causation problem here. Isn't possible that, if L.A. is ahead by a lot, Kobe Bryant gets less playing time and thus shoots less? And if L.A. is behind by a lot, Kobe gets more playing time and shoots more? In that case, this just proves that L.A. wins when their ahead by so much that they can bench Kobe, and loses often when the game is close enough that they have to overwork Kobe.

Given that Kobe almost never goes into "hero mode" in, say, the 1st quarter, he is only doing it when the game is close late. And so again, this just proves the Lakers sometimes lose close games, but hardly ever lose games where they can afford to bench Kobe late in the game.

Basketball-reference did a funny follow up post regarding the Wade + LeBron chemistry. Since most people were simply saying vague (but accurate) generalities like "their games don't mix" etc., they ran a simulation to see what percentage chance that this could happen purely off coincidental decline in skills. The answer: based on their careers, 2.76% and based on the last two years of data, exactly 0 of the 10,000 simulations resulted in this monumental drop-off in production.

AK Dave, I think any other coach would have used Ginobili waaaay more, perhaps making him a perennial All-star. Then again, monitoring his minutes probably helped them to get all those championships. Spurs are definitely all about sacrifice of one for the benefit of many (aka championship).

Speaking of which, it looks like Timmy is just cruising this season. I think he's going to have a ton of extra energy and be a beast this post season.

Overall, Spurs are probably the only team with a real chance of stopping Lakers in the West. I'm still not sold on the Mavericks and Utah will put up some fight as usual, but go down. Everyone else in the West = not even close.

I'm going to go ahead and refer you to the Dream's very forgettable end-of-career stint in Toronto. To quote Bawful, I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.

I'm also going to go ahead and point out that Dwight Howard looked fantastic in those videos too, but he still cannot bring that kind of offensive polish and poise to games.

Point being that it's easy to look good in an empty gym with no one guarding you. Or maybe the Dream's gym is some sort of magical, uncapturable offensive elixir that turns everyone into an unstoppable, sweet-shooting McParishHalian post legend. Hell, I can shoot when no one is guarding me. In game situations.. ugh. Can you say, streaky?

Tonight's Bawful field trip for yours truly: Craptors vs. Generals. Our first round pick (Ed Davis) said to make his NBA debut after a brief stint in purgatory rehabbing in the D-league. Given the bitch-slapping the Wizards laid on the Mighty Dinos the last time, they should be up for a classic revenge game this time. And if you believe what I wrote in that last sentence, you've clearly never actually watched the Raptors play, because who knows what the hell you're going to get from this team from game-to-game. Beat Orlando on the road, lose to Charlotte at home. Yeah. High.. five?

Previous field trips were to see Craptors vs. Charlotte - loss for the mighty Dinos after Tyrus Thomas went into beast mode in the 4th quarter and destroyed them - and Craptors vs. 76ers last week, where the Dinos built a 20-point lead in the first half and coasted home. Iggy looked.. uhhh.. "happy", with the state of affairs on the Suxers?

My pu-pu platter of games continues throughout the season with the Nets, Cavs, Pacers, Pistons, Grizzlies, and Frail Blazers. The NBA: where mediocrity happens!

Even though our eurodino's are more bawful then ever, they are for some reason more entertaining to watch this year. You agree @the other chris? I got tickets for the Dev @ Tor game, so I fully expect Melo to be traded next week, so I will be treated to 4 quarters of JR smith chucking up shots, who am I kidding, that will happen regardless.

@Draftarujo -- They were, but what I was loving was watching Evans gobble up rebounds and attempt the occasional putback. Every time he went for a lay-in he looked as awkward as a baby horse trying to stand up for the first time.

The guys I share tickets with have a strange system. Well, more specifically the guy who's name the tickets are in. His system is: You pick three teams you want to see, I try to make that happen, then I assign you a random selection of other games.

What makes this especially weird is that because of his two young children, he's not an active participant in this arrangement. He will be, in future years, he's "loaning" his share to someone else right now, but for the time being all he does is the logistics of paying for the tickets, getting them mailed to him, and handing them out. It would seem far more logical to a person like, say, myself, to just hand the tickets over to, say, myself, and then we could have a simple draft amongst the people who do have tickets. I mean you don't even need to do it in person in this day and age. Just set up a shared spreadsheet or whatever and have at 'er, just be done before the regular season starts.

As you can see my random games skew heavily towards the basement of the NBA. But I actually don't mind for several reasons:

1) I got a bunch of Friday night games. Hello, problem drinking.

2) I didn't get any Sunday morning games. I play sports on Sunday afternoons, and attending basketball games cramps my style. The Wednesday and Friday games are much better.

3) The Mighty Dinos will actually be competitive against the pu-pu platter, as opposed to the elite or even pretty good teams, who will utterly annihilate them. I'd rather watch an entertaining, somewhat close game than a blowout where the superstars play a quarter of the game.

4) I'm easy going to the point of lapsing into a coma, so fuck it, I'm not gonna be "that guy" that's moaning about the distribution.

5) I got a wicked awesome distribution last year, which included from what I can remember Boston, Dallas, Phoenix, Portland, Chicago twice, including the second last, extremely crucial game for playoffs (which we of course shat the bed in, I'm sure Matt remembers the game of which I speak), and a couple of other decent games. So, what goes around, comes around. No biggie.

Cost is not a factor for me, since I'm sharing seasons, they all cost the same. I'm sure you can score some pretty cheap tickets these days. Oh well. The cost ($630) of my tickets for the 10 games is not exactly onerous relative to my income (more than adequate) and responsibilities (zero).

@drafaraujo, I agree.. they are playing harder than recent memory, at least. And that's all we want as fans.. effort. Not everyone is Michael Jordan, but if you leave it on the floor, I'm happy.

Wait, of the thirty or so Regular commenters we have three Craptors Fans? Represent!

I agree with the above - these Craptors with Sonny, Demar, Amir and the now injured Reggie are the most enjoyable to watch since the 06 squad that won the division.

As for blowouts - These guys haven't really been blown out by good teams yet. They might actually be this season's plucky overachievers if they start playing with the same level of focus against the bad teams.